Consumers lost more than $5.8 billion to fraud in 2021, an increase of more than 70 percent over the previous year. Benchmark Federal Credit Union is urging Chester County residents to be alert and protect themselves from the following four new scams, including those related to Google and Amazon.
Fake Amazon Employee Scams
There have been increasing reports of scammers posing as Amazon employees and claiming they need verification about Amazon accounts. In fact, one-third of the reported business-imposter fraud complaints involve scammers claiming they’re from Amazon, according to the FTC. Emails or text messages may contain links to a website that looks like Amazon but is actually a fraudulent site. In reality, they are sent from an outside party attempting to access your personal information by getting you to open an attachment or link that contains malware or redirects to a dangerous website.
Scammers will phish for credit card information or other financial information. They may even ask for remote access to your computer to try to resolve an issue. Be skeptical of any unsolicited calls, emails or text messages that ask for personal information. Delete any messages or emails without clicking on links. In addition to reporting this to the FTC, you can also report scams relating to Amazon to stop-spoofing@amazon.com.
Google Voice Scams
This is the latest scam to use popular technology as a weapon. Scammers contact people with items listed for sale on popular sites…
